Friday 20 March 2020

Friday 20 March 2020 – Le Crotoy to Gravelines

After a much-needed rest we awoke to rain showers and a grey blustery day. Our plan today was to see the vet, change the tunnel booking then find somewhere to wait out the necessary 24 hours we needed after Jamies worming treatment. So we were a little alarmed on checking the Eurotunnel website to find all departures were sold out – that simply cannot be! However a telephone call, with a not unexpeceted longish wait on hold, reassured us we could have virtually any time we wanted so chose early Sunday morning. This means we've got the full day to drive home and maybe stop off at Mums too.

So after breakfast we drove the ten minutes to Rue to find the vet was open. The girl covering reception was not at all helpful, saying we needed to telephone for an appointment but all three vets were there and after explaining our crossing was on Sunday morning they told us to bring Jamie in and they would see to him there and then. Could have been a problem with our tunnel booking......!

Aldi have a store almost next to the vet so Bren popped in, after having to queue outside, for some little extras to tide us over for the remainder of the trip home. Then a decision; should we go back to Le Crotoy for another night or head on to be closer to the tunnel. Choosing the latter we took our usual D940 route along the coast, being stopped once by the police who waved us on when we said we had a tunnel reservation back to Angleterre.

Wissant is our preferred stop as it is only 15 mins from the tunnel and very quiet, but today it was too quiet, ie closed! Hmmm, being now unable to use the carpark at Citie de Europ and all campsites and official aires apparently closed, we resorted to those we knew could not be closed off and settled for Gravelines, a little past Calais and about 30 mins drive from the tunnel. A miserable run in pouring rain along the motorway, our consolation being that Bertie was getting a good wash at last, and we arrived to find an empty but open aire.

So now we're sitting watching and listening to the rain but at least we're warm and dry and can relax for 24 hours; we've got all we need now. Just every now and then Jamie wants to go out but that's okay and the weather forecast says this should clear up this evening and then stay dry for our trip home.

This is probably our last post before returning home. It's a shame that the trip should end in such a sudden and unexpected way but we feel, in the circumstances and judging by all the news reports we're seeing about Covid-19, that we have done the right thing in timely fashion. But at least we're in a position to do things for ourselves, unlike the thousands of holidaymakers “trapped” in Spain, threatened with being thrown out of their hotels with few aircraft available to bring them home.

With this and Brexit it's beginning to look like travel and tourism will wear a somewhat different face in the future.

Thanks for reading this load of tosh. We haveno idea of where or when our next trip will be!

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